<h2>Name</h2>
<p>
The Surah takes its name from verse 15 in which the word <em>Saba</em> has
occurred, which implies that it is the Surah in which mention has been
made of Saba (i. e. the Sabaeans).
</p>
<h2>Period of Revelation</h2>
<p>
The exact period of its revelation is not known from any reliable
tradition. However, the style shows that it is either the middle or
the early Makkan period. If it is the middle period, it was probably
its initial stage when the persecution had not yet become tyrannical
and the Islamic movement was being suppressed only by resort to
derision and ridicule, rumor mongering, false allegations and casting
of evil suggestions in the people's minds.
</p>
<h2>Theme and Subject Matter</h2>
<p>
The Surah deals with those objections of the disbelievers, which they
were raising against the Holy Prophet's message of <Em>Tauhid</Em>and the
Hereafter, and about his Prophethood itself, mostly in the form of
absurd allegations and taunts and mockery. These objections have been
answered, sometimes by citing them and sometimes without citing them,
and the discourse itself shows which objection is being answered at a
particular place. The answers mostly take the form of instruction and
admonition and argument, but at some places the disbelievers have been
warned also of the evil consequences, of their stubbornness. In this
connection, the stories of the Sabaeans and the Prophets David and
Solomon have been related to impress this lesson: "You have both these
historical precedents before you. On the one hand, there were the
Prophets David and Solomon, who had been blessed by Allah with great
powers and such grandeur and glory as had been granted to hardly any
people before them. In spite of this, they were not proud and arrogant,
but remained grateful servants of their Lord. They were never
rebellious. On the other hand, there were the people of Saba, who,
when blessed by Allah, became proud, and were consequently so
thoroughly destroyed and dispersed as to be remembered only in myths
and legends. With these precedents in view, you may see and judge for
yourselves as to which bind of the life is better: that which is built
on belief in <Em>Tauhid</Em> and the Hereafter and the attitude of gratefulness
to Allah, or that which is based on disbelief and <em>shirk</em>and denial of
the Hereafter and the worship of the world."
</p>

